“And because you’re dealing directly with the owner it’s kind of normal that they’d give you their personal account details.”

She was looking forward to her beach holiday in Seminyak when she received an email from FlipKey warning her she may have been scammed.

After contacting the property’s real owner she found he had never heard of her.

FlipKey chief operating officer Jeremiah Gall said it was a personal email account and not a FlipKey account which was compromised.

“We care deeply about the experience of all travelers using FlipKey to plan their trip and we’ll continue to work with this traveler and owner to resolve the situation and make sure this traveler’s vacation and funds have not been lost,” Mr Gall said.